Trump Defends Handling Of Coronavirus Outbreak Following Democrats Criticism During Debate

After being hammered by the 2020 Democratic candidates for the way his administration has handled the coronavirus outbreak, President Donald Trump assured people of his administration's ability to handle the virus outbreak efficiently.

“CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus, including the very early closing of our borders to certain areas of the world. It was opposed by the Dems, ‘too soon’, but turned out to be the correct decision,” Trump tweeted.

During the debate on Tuesday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders and other democrats mocked and criticized Trump and his administration over their handling of the coronavirus outbreak, The Hill reported.

“In the White House today, we have a self-described ‘great genius,’” Sanders said at the debate. “This great genius has told us that this coronavirus is going to end in two months. April is the magical day that this great scientist in the White House has determined.”

Trump in response said that the criticism from the democrats was "not fair".

“No matter how well we do, however, the Democrats' talking point is that we are doing badly. If the virus disappeared tomorrow, they would say we did a really poor, and even incompetent, job. Not fair, but it is what it is,” he tweeted.

After U.S. health officials warned regarding the chances of coronavirus outbreak in the country, the controversy shrouding the government's reply intensified last Tuesday.

“As more and more countries experience community spread, successful containment at our borders becomes harder and harder,” Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC, told The Hill Tuesday. “It’s not a question of if this will happen but when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illnesses. Disruption to everyday life might be severe,” she further added.

On Monday, the Trump administration had said that it would request an amount of 2.5 billion in order to be prepared against the possibility of a coronavirus outbreak in the country. But the amount was deemed insufficient by lawmakers from both parties.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases has crossed over 77,000 in China and more than 2,000 across the world. The total number of confirmed cases in the U.S. has reached 57.